Casper Fire-EMS Using Drone To Assess Downtown Risks

If you see a drone buzzing around above downtown Casper, it's not keeping an eye on you, it's assessing possible fire danger. Jason Parks with Casper Fire-EMS says when their new Chief Tom Solberg arrived, he expressed some concerns with the Casper's downtown as far as fire risks. Parks says Solberg has a background in the Midwest with a similar-sized department and downtown area, and experienced some fairly significant fires.

"So we have a project going that we're going to do some assessment of the area, taking aerial video and photography using our SUAS Drone system, just to get an assessment and so he can see an overview of what everything looks like, " says Parks.

Parks says they're looking at a few concerns. "Just the compactness of the downtown area, and how the buildings are pretty much butted up right next to each other, some of them share common walls together. A lot of those buildings downtown don't have fire sprinkler systems in them. Some of them do, but the majority of them don't, and being connected the way they are you run a risk for a pretty significant fire."

Parks says they'll probably be flying the drone mostly in the morning hours, when there are fewer people around.